{"id":10722,"date":"2021-07-17T22:19:54","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T22:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/?p=10722"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:28:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:28:41","slug":"review-futurespotting-by-francesco-verso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sfintranslation.com\/?p=10722","title":{"rendered":"Review: Futurespotting by Francesco Verso"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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various translators<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future Fiction<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

March 21, 2021<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

194 pages<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

grab a copy<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cFernando Morales, This is Your Death!\u201d tr. Sally McCorry<\/span>
\u201cMidsummer Future,\u201d tr. Sally McCorry<\/span>
\u201cItalianskij Tikaj Tikaj,\u201d tr. Tom Crosshill<\/span>
\u201c90 Cents,\u201d tr. Sally McCorry<\/span>
\u201cFlush,\u201d tr. Georgia Emma Gili<\/span>
\u201cThe Green Ship,\u201d tr. Michael Colbert<\/span>
\u201cCelestial Formatting,\u201d tr. Georgia Emma Gili<\/span>
\u201cThe Assassin\u2019s Level,\u201d tr. Sally McCorry<\/span>
“Awakenings,” tr. Sarah Jane Webb<\/span>
“AIdolon,” tr. Sarah Jane Webb<\/span>
“Two Worlds,” tr. Sally McCorry<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve read Francesco Verso\u2019s work<\/span><\/a> before, you know of his deep interest in transhumanism, whether through the interfacing of humans and machines, genetic engineering, or the results of evolution in the far future.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the eleven stories included in this collection, the majority deal with the ways in which humans interact with, and even inhabit, various forms of technology. \u201cFernando Morales, This is Your Death!\u201d is the story of an old man lying his way onto a euthanasia reality show because he doesn\u2019t want to die alone, while virtual reality is raised to a whole new \u201creal\u201d level in \u201cMidsummer Future\u201d and \u201cThe Assassins\u2019 Level.\u201d And while the former imagines a world in which only virtual sex is permitted, \u201cCelestial Formatting\u201d goes further by permitting us to read the thoughts of two people who have transmigrated via a computer program.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two stories \u201cAIdolon\u201d and \u201cAwakenings\u201d fit perfectly into this collection, having first appeared in Words Without Borders<\/i> a few years ago for a feature I guest-edited on Italian speculative microfiction in translation<\/a><\/span>. In \u201cAIdolon,\u201d corpses from traffic accidents are \u201crevived\u201d by computer chips to work as accident-recovery personnel, while \u201cAwakenings\u201d imagines a crash victim waking up from a coma in a hospital only to find that her family \u201ctemporarily\u201d replaced her with an android look-alike.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verso is also interested in how discrete pieces of technology can alter humans\u2019 interactions with one another. In \u201c90 Cents,\u201d a young woman visiting Milan stumbles upon a criminal gang that exploits children by putting LED trackers into their necks and then sending them out to commit crimes. Illegal ear buds are the focus of \u201cFlush,\u201d where a city has become so disturbingly loud that one man is willing to risk punishment just to sample \u201cpure\u201d silence.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three of the stories in Futurespotting<\/i> focus on migration and the idea of \u201chome.\u201d Refugees from Africa are saved from downing by the eponymous Green Ship, which ultimately takes them to a new geological formation that becomes their new homeland. An Italian medic far from home, in \u201cItalianskij Tikaj Tikaj,\u201d escapes the brutal futuristic war into which he was drafted, eventually finding comfort in the home of a simple Ukrainian family. And in \u201cTwo Worlds\u201d (my favorite story of the collection), two different post-human species work together to turn the Earth back from one that includes a few tall trees and one vast ocean to a planet with land masses.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like much of Verso\u2019s work, this collection takes current ethical and technological questions and debates and turns them into highly-original narratives that make us think carefully about the kind of future we want.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

various translators Future Fiction March 21, 2021 194 pages grab a copy \u201cFernando Morales, This is Your Death!\u201d tr. Sally McCorry\u201cMidsummer Future,\u201d tr. Sally McCorry\u201cItalianskij Tikaj Tikaj,\u201d tr. Tom Crosshill\u201c90 Cents,\u201d tr. Sally McCorry\u201cFlush,\u201d tr. Georgia Emma Gili\u201cThe Green Ship,\u201d tr. Michael Colbert\u201cCelestial Formatting,\u201d tr. Georgia Emma Gili\u201cThe Assassin\u2019s Level,\u201d tr. Sally McCorry“Awakenings,” tr. Sarah<\/p>\n

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